U-46 Board Meeting - Dec 15, 2025

001Hey, hey, hey. Navigator. >> [music] >> Good. [music] Good evening. Here we go. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Hey, hey, two check. Check. Hey, hey, that's coming in. All right, let me Check. Check. Hey. Hey. Two. Two. Check. Check. One. Two. Check. Check. Hey. Hey. Check. Check. Check. Hey. Don't let me know. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Oh yeah. I feel my baby. Heat. Heat. Okay. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Why? Hey, good evening everyone. I am going to resume the December 15th, 2025 board of education meeting. If I could have everybody stand as they are able for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. So the

002first item on our agenda is the opening of a hearing to receive public comments on the proposal to sell bonds for the district. The purpose of this agenda item is to receive public comments on the proposal to sell bonds of the district in the amount of not to exceed $32 million for the purpose of increasing the working cash fund of the district. At this time, I will ask for oral or written testimony or any public comments concerning the working cash fund bonds. I don't have we have received one comment. It's just recognize read it into the record or just recognize receive. Oh, he's here. >> Oh, okay. Sorry. >> All right. So, yes, we have received one uh comment and uh Cody Cody Holt is here to deliver the comment in person. >> Thank you,

003board. Uh my name is Cody Holt. I'm an Elgen resident. I'm here tonight to oppose the $ 32 million bond issuance and I just want to say how inspiring it is to watch you 46 board members in real time demonstrate why financial literacy is so important. Because if tonight were a classroom lesson, the investment bankers from Raymond James would be the honor students. The taxpayers would be the majority of U46 students who are consistently failed by the system and the school board would basically be be Tim Walls. Let's talk about who understands the complex world of bonds interests and stuff like that. It's not the parents. It's not the teachers. It's not even you guys. It's the Raymond James investment bankers. They know exactly what they're doing and they love deals like this. Why? Because

004they're not here to educate. They're here to sell, sell, sell. Just like Gordon Gecko on Wall Street in the 1980s. Their sales pitch sounds stons, but in reality, it's not stons. These are the same type of bankers as the ones you'll find at Black Rockck. The firm buying up single family homes, inflating house prices, jacking up rent, and telling everyone that it's just the market. And that's the same mentality just with local governments and school bonds instead of houses. It's a different asset, but the same playbook. They show up, use a pitch, they use words like responsible, equity, strategic, and walk away with guaranteed fees and interest while taxpayers are locked into decades of higher taxes. And somehow every time it works, no matter. No wonder we bear the nation's highest property tax burden, which

005is wild because this board is supposed to be supporting teaching kids the basics, things like interest, debt, and its long-term consequences. If a student ran their personal finances this way, we'd say the system was broken. But when elected officials do it with a $32 million bond issuance, you want to call it leadership. Meanwhile, homeowners, renters, and small businesses pay more, and everyone is told not to worry because it's for the kids. Apparently, the kids now include Wall Street. [snorts] Because the truth is, it only works when people signing the paperwork don't fully understand the math. And if you're looking for a great way, a great place to start fi teaching financial literacy, it starts here at the deis. Oh, and vote no on the property tax increase. If you vote for the bond issuance and

006to hike taxes tonight, in the words of my high school econ teacher, Mr. Bas, I'd say to I'd say to you guys that this wasn't very cash money of you. Thank you. >> Thank you. We now have additional time for additional comments and uh questions from the board of education if any. And as of this moment on record, there are no additional requests for oral testimony or written testimony. Correct. >> That is correct. >> Okay. At this time, I will announce that all persons desiring to be heard have been given an opportunity to present oral and written testimony with respect to the proposed issuance of the working cash bonds. I will now ask for a motion to close the hearing of the issuance of the working cash bonds uh of the hearing for the issuance

007of the working cash bonds. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. Miss Kirk, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> President Owens, >> yes. >> Close 7:08 p.m. >> Thank you. The next item on our agenda is Alignment Collaborative for Education and School District U46 Explore 2025 update. >> Thank you, President Owens. This evening, uh, we are joined by Bill Wright, Alignment Governing Board Chairman, Nancy Coleman, Executive Director for Alignment Collaborative for Education, Edgar Montes, Alignment Collaborative Community Program Manager, Todd Stern, Northern Kain County Region 110 Workbased Learning Specialist, and Terry Stro, director of Northern Kain County Region 110, who will provide the board of education with an update on alignment collaborative for education and explor Explore

0082025. >> All right. Hey, good evening. Um, I'm Micah Kennedy. I am the assistant director of postsecary success here at EU46. Um, I'm excited here to um, introduce everybody that you actually just did introduce. Um, we've expanded our partnership with our local EF Education for Employment District and the Alignment Collaborative for Education or ACE over the past year or so. and we continue to do that and see great results with all of our students and the things that they're able to accomplish in and out of the classroom. We've seen expansion especially in our explore event and through our summer internship programs which you'll hear more about here in a little bit. It's an honor working alongside all of these individuals that are here tonight. And with that um I'd like to introduce Bill Wright who

009is the governing board chairman for the Alignment Collaborative for Education and he'll get us on to the next step. Thank you. Thank you very much for having us and I just want to say since introductions are made I'll be very brief. I just want to say thank you all for your support in the past years and we look forward to continuing to do great things. So obviously we have Edgar, we have Todd Terry, we have Nancy and they're going to come up and give you a great presentation. That way you don't have to hear me speak anymore. So thank you. Good evening everybody. Uh thank you all for having us this evening. My name is Edgar and I am a proud U46 uh graduate myself, Elg High School, class of 2012. But just very excited

010to be here, live in the community and just be a part of the organization as well. Uh so like uh Bill and the team mentioned I I have the pleasure of coordinating the explore events on the alignment side and I work handic with Ma Kennedy and her postsecondary team as well to coordinate the school side. So we've been very very successful. This is now my third year coordinating explore which happened this past October 1st and 2nd. uh and we had over 81 exhibitors there from different career pathways that we have uh meaning the arts and communications area, finance, business, IT, uh healthcare, uh human and professional services, manufacturing, engineering, technology and trades and among other industry clusters within those little sectors as well. Uh we had a lot of different uh organizations that were new

011this year as well that we were able to recruit which always great to have new faces, but it's always amazing to have people coming back as well. uh that just really testifies uh just the enormous of the coordination that goes behind it and also the impact. Uh obviously we target the uh middle schools here at 46. Over 2,300 students participated this year alone. We also had a family night as well on October 1st. Uh we invited the family from the high schools, not just the high schools but also the middle school uh parents and we gave different presentations as well as you know just CTE information, curriculum, internship information as well. And then of course the magnet as well uh into into all of that different aspect there. Now, we also have just here all

012of the amazing support that we have uh from all of the different organizations that we partner with. Uh my job is to each year grab uh gravitate any new organizations that come in to try to get them involved, right? Because it's not uh it's not an easy cell sometimes to tell them they're going to be around like 2,300 eighth graders at the time. But at the same time, once they see the pictures, they see the organization, they see the impact of it. It's actually not a bad day and and and I feel like they really really enjoy the day at the end of the day, even though it's a very exhausting day, at least for the team and I. Um, lastly, I just want to give a huge thanks. Without them, this event would not

013be possible. The same thing, huge shout out to the U46 team. Shout out to the high school students as well that came out and volunteered for us. Um, obviously our alignment team as well. Uh we just are very very grateful and I wish when I was in middle school I wish I would have had something similar to this. Uh but I'm very very glad that at least my siblings that are now graduating from high school got to experience that opportunity. So I'm very very grateful for that. Uh so with that being said, I'm going to turn it over to uh believe it's Terry Stro for the internship information. Thanks for having me. Good evening everyone. Thank you Dr. Johnson, members of the board for having us here this evening. Uh before we get started, um

014Nancy Coleman, myself, Dr. Stern, Michael Kennedy, all just got back from the National ACT or Association for Career Tech Conference last week. having a chance to go through some sessions down there and talk to people from across the country. I can tell you that the things that we're doing here in the region are not being duplicated in very many places if any across the country. Uh and a chance to get to talk to a lot of different places that are looking at this type of work overall and have them uh come we actually had a chance to speak uh at a session and have as many people as we had come and ask us how we're accomplishing these things was a big piece of that. So when we look overall at the internship process or

015the internship program, we look at a couple different pieces. We start off by partnering together with alignment collaborative for a resume building workshop. So students are given the opportunity to actually sit down and learn from all of us and learn from different businesses on how to have a great resume. From there, this past year, we had 55 companies that went ahead and offered to have uh students in their organization for the summer. We do this 60 hour internship, so two to three weeks in the month of June. This year we had just over a thousand applicants. You'll see here uh coming up just how much that's grown by. 850 viable resumes came out of that process. It looked like we killed a small forest in my office at one point with all the resumes being

016printed off. Uh but then to go through with our district directors uh and look at all those resumes and make sure that students were placed in the proper settings there with all that and then moving from there to sit down and go through parent student meetings and talk to parents about what the organization is trying to do for their students, what the u the opportunity is for them and how that's going to lead into their futures. So when we look at this overall the first year we put this together, we only had 65 total. It was a little bit of a struggle for students to see what this looked like and how to build and what this really meant for them in their future. As we worked up, you can now see we had just

017over a thousand this past year. So, it's really a great amount of growth. Uh number of students in U46 has grown as well uh from 95 last year uh two years ago to 123 this past summer. Uh I'll come back to the overall demographics in just a minute. When we look at those number of students that were placed This is going from 52 the first year to now 243. So out of 850 viable resumes, 243 were placed. And you could probably say why only 243 if you had over a thousand applicants and over 850 resumes. Well, that's because 350 of those resumes were vying for about 40 spots in healthcare alone. So, how do we continue to work to build that up and find more opportunities for students uh as we're growing from there? The

018most important piece of this though is out of those 243, let's go back here really quickly. The overall demographics of students are exactly what our community is. So having not just one group or another overpower these opportunities. These are students coming from all across the community that are uh coming and taking part in this opportunities. We couldn't do all of this without all of our partnerships with Alignment Collaborative, without the district, without all of our business partners to make all these things happen. Our goal for 2026 is to place over 300 students. So now from here and how do we do this? Kind of refresh everyone's memory there. These are all paid internships. What we have found is that students weren't willing to give up their summers. They weren't willing to give up jobs that

019they had without seeing some compensation. It was important for our students to show them that. And what we have seen is by having that little bit of buy in from the students, we actually had all 243 successfully completed their internships this past summer. I know NY is going to talk a little bit about where that leads into next opportunities. Thank you again. >> I'm excited to see the support that this program has had not only from the business community but definitely from the schools and the school board. Um many of you were here when we started this program at Village Department years and years ago. We are seeing significant growth. We are seeing a significant investment by our companies. Also, uh we had 55 organizations that Terry mentioned. Uh if you look at the number

020of volunteer hours that they spent with those 243 students was over 14,000 hours that were invested in these students. uh as that number grows, so do the investment from the community, from the standpoint of the return on investment from companies actually providing these opportunities for students. So, we're excited about that. Um, if you look, I think this is real important for you to see too, and this is the distribution by school district. All of you aware that we have opened it up to be a regional program across four school districts. You will see on that the majority of the placements are still 46. Um U46 has been instrumental in setting up the teacher pipeline work with us and being sure that we have strong placements for all students pursuing to future education career to be

021sure that's in place. But you will also see in the data here significant numbers placed in business engineering uh very close to what we're seeing in the pathways and where student interest lies. Uh we also have the strongest I hope that no one edits this from other school districts. The strongest healthcare programs with our five uh high schools and so you will also see a very strong placement of students in the healthcare programs from one of the U46 high schools. Uh this gives you a distribution just for your interest from all 11 high schools. So you can see how it looks across the region. What I found amazing, we did not have to to make these numbers work. It was easy to have that distribution and have every high school, all 11 high schools recognized.

022This just gives you a list of some new programs we're offering. Very excited to see Athletico come to the table. They have 15 clinics in the region. One of them is right in Bartlett High School's back door. Uh so that's also very positive. You'll hear from one of the interns there. that was actually in the Shamberg facility, but we have great opportunity to grow that program. Uh we also continue to grow programs with Advocate Sherman. Over 25 students were placed there this summer. You see a lot of the other city of Elgen first responder. You're going to hear about the uh handover park program tonight. That one's also been very popular. Microsoft was new for the first year. Rosadis has had an internship program built. They have uh basically customize that to high school students

023which I think is very powerful but you'll just kind of see the list. Shells McNut was the first one in the building construction industry. So lots of growth. We're working really hard with Northern King County Region 110. Todd's been working really hard on developing one in artificial intelligence and teaching students the basics of that and how it applies to a lot of different industry sectors. So I think that one's going to be very good and so we'll continue to develop new programs. Health care we are trying to grow as fast as we can because of the demand we see. So again student survey very feedback is very positive. We're seeing eight out of 10 ratings for most of the students. We also are seeing some ratings that are twos or threes. That's also extremely valuable.

024Maybe a student thought they wanted to be a civil engineer. They get out there when they're designing the bridge and it's outside, they're like, you know, maybe I want to do mechanical because it's a lot cooler and it's in the air condition. So again, uh students that rate low, sometimes that's just as important and the ones that rate high because they decide that's not what I want to do. I need to change my direction in my senior year, which I think is really good. And then this is what I really wanted to share with you. Uh I know it's difficult. 46 is our first priority and we started with U46 and we are continued to be very dedicated to the work here in Elgen but I thought you would like to see just the growth

025that we've seen in the number of students served in U46 this is not just internships and explore this is everything that we do so again about 70% of our work is still 100% dedicated to 46 so we appreciate the support I'm going to turn it over to Dr. for the best part of the show for you to hear from the students. >> Thank you, Nancy. And good evening, Dr. Johnson, members of the board of education. Tonight, um I'm proud to introduce uh four interns that are shining examples of determination, initiative, and just great future leadership. So we have so much to be proud of in their work and their accomplishment and I'm looking forward for you to have the opportunity to hear their story. So um this work would not be possible without the support

026of your school district. So we're very grateful to you as board of education members and to you Dr. and also to alignment and to the team that's here tonight and uh to region 110 and to your administrative team uh Micah Kennedy and the other administrators for partnering with us to make this a reality. So um the students you're going to hear from tonight one is seated up with you. So uh Danvy is from Bartlett. She completed her internship with Sherman Medical Roation where she gained hands-on experience across many facets of the hospital setting. And from Lurin, you're going to hear from Avery. Uh Avery interned and spearheaded the Golden Corridor YMCA mural project, which was recently highlighted as first page covering daily Herald. And then from Streamwood, you're going to hear from America. So second

027year of a first responder internship that was unique in its area started by alignment uh with Bartlett Police Department, Handover Park and Handover Township Emergency Services. So and we're very proud of her. And finally from South Elgen Park Chief and she completed the first ever internship this summer with Athletico and so I'm looking forward to hearing from them uh you hearing from their experiences. I asked them to prepare a couple um what was their role during the internship? What did they learn? What would be recommendations for other students for internships? So with no further ado, introduce our interns. >> Hello, my name is Don and I would like to thank you all for the opportunity to speak about my experience as a medical intern at Advocate Sherman Hospital. Um so as an intern advocate Sherman

028I rotated through 10 departments and off-site clinics including radiology immediate care oncology and also transport and before this internship I had been focused on the science behind medicine and the schooling required for different careers within healthcare. However even after the first few days of being an intern I was able to learn more about um than I had in years of independent study about hospital workflow departments and patient interaction. Uh many of the mentors I worked under were extremely helpful and realistic with helping me plan a future career and also showed me that working in a hospital require not only the physical sciences but also knowledge of the humanities as well. I was able to learn skills relevant to different specialties and understand the critical skills relevant to different specialties as well. Um each department plays

029a critical role in patient care and this internship has roles has turned a career in medicine from an outline and something real and dynamic to me personally. It has given me a deeper appreciation for the healthare professionals within our system. And in the months I've continued volunteering at Advocate Sherman, I continue learning integral skills for my future career development. So for this experience, it connected closely to what I'm learning in school by showing how concepts from biology and chemistry and my extracurriculars within communication are applied in real world settings. So seeing these ideas in action made them more meaningful. learn them in a classroom alone. The internship influenced my future goals by helping me understand that medicine is not just about science but also empathy and patient interaction together. It confirmed my interest in pursuing

030a career in medicine overall. I would fully recommend this internship and experience to other students because it offers hands-on exposure to multiple departments and provides insight into hospital workflow that helps students make informed decisions about their future groups over the In my internship, I was able to take part in clinical hour experiences that are almost always exclusive to college and medical school students. So, because of this, it has contributed to my sense of college readiness as well. I sincerely hope that in future years, the program continues to grow and more students will get real world experience um in their prospective careers as it has made a significant impact in my postsecary plans and career goals as well. Thank you. I have a high interest when it comes to pursuit. So having experience making a mural

031working understand how artiste art academy had a lot of hands-on team experience with art. It helped me grow my own experience when it comes to how I wish to sell myself in the future when it comes to both my job and future colleges and career possibilities. I would definitely say a lot of art what we can do as students, what we can do, what we have in front of us. I Not to ramble any long such competitive How many more? Thank you so much for having us. I'm part of the first responder internship with police department. During my internship, I was grateful to not only detectives, officers, firefighters, uh even volunteers. Uh we were also downures that followers. Um that was one of my favorites. most important things I think I learned what I wanted

032um through high school I take part in academy um I learned multiple leadership skills but also um I was very confused during my four years high school I started off saying I wanted a doctor I apologized myself and decided that was not the path for me. I continued on market after that and even law. I do law and I liked it. When I saw internships were available, I was one of the first parts for students and we create and program law enforcement and now I am dedicated to college. I know it's a big dream but how the department. And I think for any student, thank you for I did the internship at Athletico inlet. It was the first year that we tried it. So it was definitely like a trial run and what they can.

033During my internship, I served as a rehab aid, which basically assists the physical therapist and the physical therapist assistant with their patients and working with pat. Um, I definitely learned a lot through it. Definitely learn that mistakes are okay. You will mistakes. Um, I try and avoid mistakes, but I probably made so many and that's okay. It definitely helps you learn. I really enjoyed it that I even got a part-time job afterwards at Athletico and that definitely wouldn't have been possible before as you need to be like a high school graduate and they wouldn't give you a job because you can't be a fullth I definitely want to pursue physical therapy to help the patient recover. Just seeing the side of the patient recovering. I knew surgery or something along those lines just wasn't my

034fit. I never knew if healthare I said I know every time someone asked me I said I wanted to do or the response I usually got was well that's two different things. Um and I know that physical therapy and pharmacist were one of the three, but I didn't know how to pick and I knew it was time for college ops pretty soon after the summer. Um, but after like finalizing that physical therapy is the right path. So, I'd like the four interns to stand up again for another applause. Congratulations to each of you. And now that they've they've shared some stuff, um if the board of education has any followup questions for them, they're available to answer those. And there's no need to ask them any questions, but if you have them, they're here. So,

035thank you for taking the time for us to present this evening. >> Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you to the members of the alignment collaborative. I think you know seeing all of this um especially as a board member who was at least at at CAC at the beginning of these discussions about alignment, right? And and seeing this phenomenal growth that we're seeing right now is just it's really incredibly exciting to to see that. And thank you so much to the students because what you what you share brings all of this to life for us, right? I mean, we we we can now see what's happening through your eyes and through your words. So, thank you so much for sharing. Board members, have any questions or any comments? Sue, >> just to say

036good job because like Melissa, I've been I've seen alignment grow for the last number of years and it's fantastic what you're doing. So, thank you. >> Okay. I just wanted to say too, I enjoyed all the information from the adults, but I found myself grinning silly while all the students were speaking because it was just very exciting um to see that you found your passion because that's just that's really important in life. >> Awesome. Great job. Anyone else summary? No. Um I have one just just real quick question. Um you know, knowing that obviously the the internships are are have a huge impact, right, on the on the students that participate in that. What are the the biggest constraints to to growing the program? I mean, I know that the financial piece of it is

037part of it, but is there anything else that and how you're how you're looking at meeting those challenges >> last week? I see tremendous promise. We are already building internships. So, it's about designing the make sure we have found that some of the rotation models has been one of the most successful models. It is funding but I'm very pleased to announce as soon as the breakfast was over Dr. Monday and said it for 100 trades grants. So ECC is extremely important with this County region 110 and having Terry and Todd with us is allowing us to do more because we have more manower. So it's very much helping with the coordination district. [laughter] We could not do this without the school district. When it came to those thousands we had 800 that were viable that

038had completed everything and every of those directors of career technical education sat down went through all those resumes and helped place students. So a lot of it is us just getting out there and getting new programs built uh the AI program. We also have interest from FSA ER and a couple of the other design professionals. So that will be offered for the first time. So that's another look at will internship well center. So we're trying to be as broad as we can there to cover as many interests as we can. So it's all about growing it but I think we finally got enough credibility that people are listening. We're not seeing these kind of numbers anywhere else in the state conference either. So I think what we're doing is is what we should be doing.

039We just got to but I just thank you for your support because took a while to get it to this point. So, appreciate noting on us and appreciate you. So, thank you. >> Thank you for sharing that and thank you all again for the presentation. >> Okay, the next item on the agenda is equity update. Dr. Johnson. >> Thank you, President Owens. Uh this evening, Dr. Litri Satwite, assistant superintendent of equity and innovation. Lisa Jackson, director of equity and inclusion. Michelle Chapman, director of post-secary success, Amanda Leatherbeby, director of specialized student services, and Griselta Purle, director of multilingual, multicultural education will provide the board of education with an update on our equity work. >> Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to share an update on 46 equity work. Tonight I am joined by the

040directors in the equity and innovation department and I will director. Um at the heart of the plan is our promise a safe caring environment where every student experiences the joy of learning and is empowered and prepared for a successful future. This promise will drive the decisions we make, the relationships we build and the opportunities we provide. Our mission statement reflects the commitment to creating an inclusive educational environment where all students feel valued and supported with a specific focus on addressing the needs of historically marginalized groups. By adjusting it structures and systems, the district strives to eliminate disparities and academic achievement and excellence, ensuring that every student has access to the resources and opportunities needed for success. This evening we will address these four areas. Equity committee key progress and milestones. Academic growth, equity and innovation

041department advancements in the four departments and historically black colleges, universities and Hispanic serving institutions. The action steps from the equity plan 2.0 have been aligned to the four goals of the strategic plan. We have new and returning members this year from departments and schools across the district. The equity committee's work is organized into four subcommittees each align with our district strategic plan and commitment to equity and action. Equity experience and diversity equity and inclusion learning opportunities that expands access to things like culturally responsive learning and professional development. Strategic plan monitoring and equity in integration which tracks progress on equity goals and identifies areas for improvement. Professional learning tools to strengthen areas like equitable hiring, recruitment, and culturally responsive teaching practices and supporting schools through enrollment shifts that provide supports to schools navigating our boundary and

042demographic changes. Together, these teams ensure that equity remains embedded in our systems, practices, and outcomes across the district. Next, I will share some ALA and math data broken down by ethnicity. This chart displays performance trends from 2020 through 2025 across different racial ethnic groups. It should be noted that the Illinois Assessment of Readiness has updated its performance categories to provide a clear picture of student progress towards grade level standards which are now above proficient, proficient, approaching proficient and below proficient. Across seven subgroups, there is a general increase in students exceeding or above proficient or meeting proficient standards over five years with a 9% increase or higher for 2024 2025. Two or more races had the most gains for two years in a row in the number of students meeting exceeding the standard with an 18%

043increase followed by white with a 14% increase and then Asian with 12% increase of the number of students who met proficient or exceeded above. The percentage of students in the did not yet meet or below proficient category has trended downward across all racial ethnic groups. Overall, the data reflects a positive trend in improving students overall, excuse me, in improving students outcomes over the past four years, but disparities persist among racial ethics, suggesting a need for continued focus on equity and targeted support. Similar to ELA, this math data depicts the percent of performance levels for various racial ethnic groups over five academic years. 21 to 202425 also groups had a 7% or higher increase in the number of students or above proficient except for Native Hawaiian which had a 7% decrease or more% to 40% which

044equals a 13 percentage point increase from 2023 25 followed by white with a 12% increase with an 11% increase from 50% to 61% proficient above white or two or more races groups show the strongest performance with a 19 percentage pointed above and proficient categories from to 20 25 followed by Hispanics with a 13% increase between 2023 24 and 24 25 most student subgroups demonstrating growth in the proficient above proficient category along with an increase in students moving into the approaching proficient range indicating positive momentum towards proficiency. While we did see a slight rise in the above in the below proficient category across The overall trend reflects more students progressing along achievement. Each director will now share data highlighting how their work advances equity and also director of multilingual multicultural education. >> Good evening and thank

045you for the opportunity to provide updates tonight. I'd like to pro of the elementary multilingual multiculture education programs and the upcoming shift planned for the 2026 2027 school year. On the left side, you will see the current and future plans for our integrated English second. This year, Liberty offers the ESL program for students in kindergarten through grade and Timberlites, Liberty, Creek, and Timberlard. On the right side of the slide, we highlighted the current and future plans for our elementary program. This year, we started the process of shifting from operating separate oneway and two-way dual language models to implementing a dual language model across the district and first grade in 2026 2027. Unified dual language program will expand to serve kindergarten through these changes on commitment to providing equitable multilingual programs. This slide two future are

046we exploring to strengthen multtoall dual language sites. This model in the building across all grade levels would participate in dual language instead of dual language being school. Right now we are in the preliminary steps include consulting with neighboring districts that currently operate walltoall models and engaging in discussions. This process will help us determine if and how this model could be a strong community and we would like to explore similar to our existing. We are considering launching an 8020 language program in the 2028 school year beginning. We have already visited community school district. We've also begun backwards planning to ensure we have the curriculum staffing pipeline training and community engagement for a strong considerations. These are longterm. And now I will pass this along. Thank you, Mrs. Goal number four. Ready to embrace a diverse and

047changing world as our guide. We are working to have our students in grades 6 through 12 courses, activities, and experiences that are postary and career experience. Here are some of the experiences that our postary success department has provided for our students since our last partner with the alignment collaborative for education for all the activities that Nancy Coleman shared with you earlier. Also, each of our high schools postsecary teams and counselors have been hosting informations college and career panels to prepare our students for their post. Our postcary success department has also been busy with gifted program. We held information sessions and completed this year's gift. We also have been working with students and families on single subject acceleration. Our rising freshman have received their magnet academy invitations and they are excited to join their magnet program

048next year. Abid is being successfully implemented at three elementary schools and our middle and high schools are using AVID strategies to complement their building school improvement. Our secondary counselors have met with all our new middle and high school students to help them choose classes next year. We appreciate all the opportunities our board of education supports for our students to be successful and have many opportunities. And now you will hear from Amanda, our director of Mrs. Chapman. This evening I'm going to give you an update on state performance plan indicator 10. Indicator 10 measures the disproportionate representation of racial and ethnic groups in special education categories. The Illinois State Board of Education uses what's called a risk ratio to determine whether a district has significant disproportionality in identification, placement, or discipline. In Illinois, that risk ratio

049is 3.0. A risk ratio compares how likely one group of students is to be identified for special education compared to all other students. In Illinois, if our ratio is 3.0 or higher for three consecutive years, the is identified for significant disproportionality. When this happens, 15% of our funds must be reserved for comprehensive coordinated early intervening services or CC in fiscal year 2026. That amounts to $1.2 million for 46. Specifically, we are overidentifying students who are black with an emotional disability. While we are happy to see our risk ratio dip below 4.0, our goal is to get that determination below 3.0. You can see that our risk ratio has gone up during the 2024 to 2025 school year, and there is work to be done. We have identified many strategies, but I've outlined a few key

050moves for you here. To reduce disproportionality, our department is focusing on early intentional interventions prior to a student being identified as needing special education support and services. In addition, this is where much of our identified funds are spent. We continue to support the family and community engagement specialist to strengthen partnership and ensure early collaboration with families. We are expanding CPI training and restorative practices to support staff in deescalation, relationship building, and behavior supports. Those supports help reduce the exclusionary discipline and over identification. We continue to support funding for early learner coaches to ensure that intervention and support continue for students transitioning from early learners to kindergarten. Each of these efforts directly targets equity within our system and helps ensure students receive the right supports in the least restrictive environment. Through these actions, we are addressing

051disproportionality, not only through comps, families, and staff. Now, you'll hear from Mrs. Jackson, the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Thank you. American approach proactive strategy to address disproportionality. While none of our students in identifies, administrators, teachers early We've already made overongamilies and value. We will also build authentic connection by pairing up amped upamilies with brothers rise up successfully and by matching our amped up boys with older brothers rise up mentors who model confidence. Finally, we are creating a pathway of support. Our amped up boys will be followed from prek through second grade and will seamlessly transition into brothers rise up third grade identity and as you can have expanded our reach openly giving girls from across the district, not just schools, established groups. Our school groups are supported by women in the district who

052generously volunteer their time while we continue to grow the numbers of volunteers. Open allows us to bring girls together from across the district in a consistent supportive They meet every Tuesday from 4:30 to 6:30 for building. Bringing girls together, participate in team building activities and feel engagement offering meaningful ways to share insights and shape positive change in our schools. amilies connect. Families will share experiences, stories, journeys, lessons learned that others. We will also relation. I am with you. We are with you. to walk alongside the results from the fall equity innovation survey. Our district belonging score has risen from 46%. While this shows progress, we are keenly aware that each number and it is critical that every students results underscore the importance of an interconnected districtwide approach where classrooms and leadership work together to create

053a few details regarding our HBCU and our HSI. An HBCU or historically black college and university is an institution of higher education Established over 180 years ago with the primary mission of serving the Africanames provided an inclusive environment fostering academic excellence, cultural pride and leadership development. An HSI or Hispanic serving institution is a federally designated college or university at least 25% of the fulltime student identifies as Hispanic. These institutions focus on providing access to higher education and supporting the success of Hispanic and other represented students. We are excited to share that the department will be hosting its fourth annual H.B.CU. Students will be visiting andissipp will be held in California. Students will travel via plane and then bus once they arrive. These tours will take place at the same time February 26 through March 1st.

054Thank you for the opportunity to share the impactful work taking place and department. We sincerely appreciate the board of education's ongoing support and steadfast commitment to cultivating an inclusive equitable and thriving environment. Thank you for the presentation. Do board members have any questions. >> Thank you. >> Okay. The next item on the agenda is comments from the audience. >> We have no comments at this time. >> Okay. Thank you. The next item is other business board member and superintendent update. Um, so it's been a moment since we've had a board meeting. Um, and in the space of time between board meetings, we all um attended the uh triple eye conference uh for school board members across the state. So I I did ask um board members to um briefly share their experience or or a

055takeaway from the the conference um so that we can all hear about that and and and learn some more and and continue that I think the the learning that we all experienced in that that conference. Anybody want to start? >> Okay. Um I went to a couple of good sessions. One with Dr. Sanders on what's going on at the state level and another with a law firm discussing some of the implications of the federal funding or possible federal funding cuts and other issues. But I wanted to talk about the delegate assembly since I was the delegate and I expected it to be rather boring since there was only one resolution and they were talking about um constitutional amendments and I thought well that'll be rather dull. Well, it wasn't actually the one resolution which as

056you recall had to do with the school buses that that was on a consent agenda didn't get taken off the consent agend agenda passed 344 to 10. No problem. The other consent agenda they had two consent agendas dealt with the 10 constitutional amendments. Four of them were pulled. Four items were pulled and there was a lot of discussion. I won't go into a lot of detail, but basically there seems to be concern that the delegate assembly is too much of a rubber stamp and that uh it needs to have more interaction and how can you do that when delegates are already told how to vote. So that that's an issue. Um one of the more controversial ones was the um nominating committee where people were not happy that uh the past president was automatically the

057chair of the committee. There was also concern that nominations for officers um president and vice president only the two selected by the nominating committee were presented to to districts whereas they did have information on other people who might be running from the floor but we didn't we didn't see any of that. So just to give you an idea of some of the votes um one of you know it was like 380 to 60 for one uh the the the uh vote on the nominated committee 324 to 102. So you can tell there was a a fair amount of uh unhappiness. Um and when they had the vote for the officers, there was a nomination from the floor uh for a woman nominated herself and the uh the person who was nominated by the nominating committee

058won, but the vote again was 277 to 113. So they they they I think they're thinking that they need to make at least some procedural changes maybe. Um I should note they were hoping to have a lot more people. I think we had about 400. They were hoping to get about 600, but you know, their changes didn't seem to attract more people. So, so that was the exciting delegate assembly. [laughter] >> Thank you for sharing that. >> All right. >> Yeah. >> Um Okay. So, um I um went to a couple different sessions. Um I went and saw Dr. Asdo um which was very exciting. I went to point. There she is. [laughter] Um that was really good. They talked a lot about um dual language um and I I really liked the way that

059um U46 kind of stacks up in terms of dual language. I think we're doing a lot of really good things. Um and so that was good. Um and then I did a session just one of the larger sessions on Friday on the um trust factor which I actually thought was really interesting because it's applicable to so many parts of our lives but talking about he had eight pillars of trust. Um talked about ways to connect and ways to build trust because I think that's something we as a schoolboard members as a school board also try to do. Um, I went to a session that Laura Martinez, our ISAB, IASB rep, um, did on some 10 topics and everybody could kind of pick the table they wanted to be at. And I went to the one

060that was um, board hat, parent hat, um, because that's an ongoing challenge as a parent in the district. Um, and I but I did really enjoy that because um, like other people had good ideas. It was nice to be reminded big districts, small districts, it's it's a concern no matter where you are. Um, yeah. And then I went to another one called Tiny Moments and Big Impacts and found the best um team building activity that I loved. So >> great. Thank you, Samarine. >> Hi. So, I attended enter collective bargaining and um ran into some old faces from U46 who have moved on. So that was nice. Um had a great you know great discussions with other board members and other administrators from other districts and I have come to understand how great our administration

061is and how well we function as a district. Um you know and there a lot I didn't realize how many smaller districts there are that don't have all of the access to services um you know inhouse legal counsel and everything. So that was made me really appreciate all the work we do and all of you having you all. Thank you. >> Thank you Shondaanda. >> So I attended um a few things. One was called Fierce Conversations. Um the other is Dr. Williams Dollars and Decisions and I know she said that I wasn't going to learn anything new because we have her here in house. Um and I also attended Dr. Oavdo's uh but I do want to talk about dollars and decisions. And then on Sunday, I attended for the first time a large district

062networking. [laughter] I see you. The large district networking um session, which it's kind of like a secret club. It's my first time going and everybody knew each other because they go every year and it was good to see all the large districts networking. But I'll say for dollars and decisions, um what I loved about it is that um we got to sit with other um myself and uh Melissa were there and we sat at a table with um someone from downstate and we did these different scenarios where you acted like you were a tier one, a tier 2, tier three or tier four district and then you had these decisions that you had to make um focusing on academic ROI. keep still putting the students first when the money is tight. Of course, if you're

063in a tier where you're over a 100% funded, the money is not tight, but to um understand that with our large district, we have a lot of resources, as some was saying, available where sometimes when we go to say to another person at a in a district that's not large, doesn't have those resources, oh, just talk to your legal counsel. Don't you do that like often? and and the person that we were with said they had to make the decision between do we call our lawyer because we can't afford to do that? Can we make this decision on our own? And so to be able to understand how other districts function, what other um issues that they may have, um that was very helpful. And then the large district networking was was really good as

064well. >> Um I attended a few different sessions. Um, one of them was the uh one called what will spring 2026 bring for school finance? And that was with legislators. I think there was one legislator there and a representative from the governor's office. It was enlightening and not enlightening in that fact that not anybody, nobody seemed to have a lot of answers for what to expect coming up, especially as how the federal government plays into it all. So, but it was still good to hear. Um and then I went to another session uh called uh BOE predicament theater. Um it was really good. It was it presented governance quandries and you were you know you worked to determine how you would respond to them. Um most of them were no-win scenarios. Um there was also

065some little caveats of um whether or not you were in compliance with the open meetings act with certain you know in certain examples in certain scenarios. So, I actually learned things there. I was surprised at how I thought I would answer them all correctly and there were so many little nuances that were um tricky to uh navigate. So, that was very helpful. And then last but not least, I did do the large district networking also. Um that session is always helpful to really just get perspective from those other that other people don't have. So, just like Shandra said, that was great. >> Thank you. And I um I also attended as as Shondaanda said the uh session with with Dr. Williams. And it it's funny because you know we have the benefit right of having

066Dr. Williams and and your leadership and and the the vast amount of knowledge and experience that you bring to this district. Um and so you know at first blush you might think well we we get to talk to you all the time right? um you know and so you know maybe some of that session would have been repetitive but I think as as Shondaanda um pointed out it was not. Um, and I, you know, coming off of the session that Veronica just mentioned with the legislators and and knowing that we are coming up on a time of probably some some financial constraints, right, and some some tightening of the budgets um, in the in the federal and state government. having those very very frank discussions um and having those with other board members across the

067state and and and hearing and listening about how it will affect their boards, their school districts offers a different reflection on on the decisions that we have to make. And so I appreciate that back and forth. Um and then uh I also attended the the large member or the large district session on Sunday. Um and I think that one of the things that came away from that is that we have such a an experienced board all the way around, right? We we come from so many different backgrounds. We've got so many different exper life experiences. We see things through, you know, each of us brings our own lens to the district and I think it's really valuable. Um, and I I think that we were able to articulate some of the things that we do

068as a district very well. Um, and I think ISB heard that and and will is taking that back um to their decision-making process on additional professional development for districts as a whole because you know some of us express that that that's necessary, right? And and that that gives us more value for what we are getting as members of that association. So, thank you all for your participation because I think it it you know it it helps strengthen not just us but it strengthens the the association as well. Um and in the long run that benefits all of us. Thank you. Anybody have anything additional to share other than that? Okay, Dr. Johnson. Uh I just want to thank our colleagues again some of them were already mentioned uh who were providing professional learning opportunities at

069the conference. So uh we did have Dr. Anatoo uh representing our dual language uh program. We had uh Dr. Ann Williams uh certainly providing great learning opportunities around school finance and our chief legal officer who was also presenting learning opportunities about uh board agendas and decision making data and board. So uh appreciate all of you for doing such a great job of sharing your experience and expertise as we uh continue to learn together. So thank you. >> Hey next can I add one thing? Sure. I forgot to and um I wanna I thank Evelyn Bevans publicly because she does so much behind the scenes for us um all the time every week but especially for the triple eye conference and she doesn't even attend the conference but we it would not run as smoothly for

070us the the board members and the staff that go if it weren't for Evelyn so I wanted to thank her. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Can I I want to jump on that too because like Evelyn puts together a whole folder for us and has all of our stuff and where we're supposed to be and when. And I was sitting down next to a board member from a totally different district. I can't even remember where they were and they had like one little page. It had some handwritten notes and I was like how do you even know where to go? Like so Evelyn's is Evelyn is amazing. >> Very much keeps us on track and very very very helpful with everything that that she puts together. So yeah. Okay. Uh, next item on the agenda

071is for requests. Dr. Johnson. >> Uh, thank you, President Owens. This evening we have 14 Freedom of Information Act requests available on the uh, board doc uh, do uh, public domain and will be moved uh, later this week to the school district U46 website as well. Thank you. Next item is consent agenda. This evening we have personnel report and workers compensation cases, minutes of board meeting September 22nd, 2025. Termination of Margarita Coronado Kovarubius monitor termination of August A. Carbowski Parah Crosscat Special Education Student Services one to1 termination of Sandra Martinez noon hour supervisor bid operations Unite U46 Century Oaks Elementary School electrical bid operations U46 Glen Brook Elementary School electrical bid operations U46 Illinois Park Elementary School proposal plant operations Kim Middle School emergency chiller repairs contract specialized student services contract related service staff change

072order plant operations high school pathways phase 2 automotive culinary and engineering renovation project number change order plan operations Heritage Elementary School electrical switchboard replacement and emergency generator installation project number 879 change order Plant operations, Lords Park Elementary School. Emergency generator installation project number 1153. Change order. Plant operations. Horizon Elementary Schools electrical switchboard replacement and emergency generator installation. Project number 980. Approval of settlement agreement and general release in the matter of Heredia versus Smith and School District EU46. Approval of settlement agreement and general release in the matter of MJ and KJ versus school district U46. Approval of settlement agreement and general release in the matter of Arius versus school district U46 and Bartlett High School. Statement of completion one, Elgen High School Picnic Shelter project number 25-00003 and building permit one, Illinois Park Elementary School renovation

073and addition project number 2025.004. Are there any items that board members would like removed from the consent agenda? Hearing none, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as read into the record? So move second. Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> President Owens, >> yes. >> Motion carried. >> Okay. The next item is discussion action. Dr. Johnson. >> Our first item, itemized bills for December 15, 2025. Robin Cornellison, executive director of financial services, will respond to questions from the board of education regarding the attached bills. Administration recommends the board of education approved the list of bills in the amount of 99,156,360.74. May I have a motion to approve the list

074of bills in the amount of 99,156,360.74? So >> second. >> Any questions? >> Roll call, please. Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Kug, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> President Owens, >> yes. >> Motion carried. >> What? >> Oh, the next item. >> Our ne our next item, estimate of 2025 tax levy coming forward. Dr. Anne Williams and Dr. Kyle Vonazy, Deputy Superintendent of Operations, joining Robin Cornellison, Executive Director of Finance, will be available to respond to questions from the board of education regarding the attached fiscal year 2025 tax levy documents. Administration recommends adoption of the truth and taxation certificate. Certification of truth and taxation compliance, certificate of tax levy, resolution authorizing the adoption of the certificate of tax levy, and certification of

075the resolution authorizing the adoption of the certificate of tax levy. May I have a motion to adopt the truth and taxation certificate certification of truth and taxation compliance certificate of tax levy resolution authorizing the adoption of the certificate of tax levy and certification of the resolution authorizing the adoption of the certificate of tax levy. >> So moved. Second. >> Okay. Any board members have any questions or is there any comments from the presenters? >> I was just gonna take a moment and um give a quick synopsis of the tax. >> So the 2025 proposed levy has been developed in compliance with the Illinois school code, the property tax extension limitation law which is PAL and public act 940976. was calculated using the consumer price index CPI projected property values and data from the prior tax

076extension uh the prior year tax extension. These factors along with statuto tax caps applied to certain funds determine the total tax levy available to the district. The estimated 2025 tax levy including the 4.99 increase comes to 42,594,331 It's important to note that school districts receive tax revenues that amount to no more than what is requested and no more than what is permitted under PEL. What is included in the district's estimated new construction is 58 million in addition to the 2.9% gives us our tax extension estimate of approximately 365,361,897. Any questions at this time? >> Thank you. Any questions? >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> President Owens, >> yes. >> Motion

077carried. >> Thank you. >> Next item. >> Our next item, minutes of board committee meetings attached to the board of education's reviews. of review are the following board committee meeting minutes. September 8th, 2025 board of education finance committee meeting. November 17, 2025 board of education finance committee meeting. Okay. May I have a motion to accept the following minutes. The September 8th, 2025 board of education finance committee meeting and the November 17th, 2025 Board of Education Finance Committee meeting. >> So moved. Second. Any questions? Okay. Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> President Owens, >> yes. >> Motion carried. >> Okay. The next item on our agenda is, uh, item D, superintendent goals. Um,

078and so, board members, uh, we've had a number of discussions, um, with Dr. Johnson regarding uh the formation of the goals for her current contract. Um did I say Miss Johnson or Dr. Johnson? >> I respond to both. >> Yeah. [laughter] Uh conversations with Dr. Johnson uh regarding the creation of the goals for her current contract. Um, as you recall, the prior contract, um, we had a list of goals on that contract that were found to be, um, completed. And so these goals now are for the the current contract that is is in play. um similar to what the con the the prior goals on the prior contract um where they tied into the strategic plan that we had at the time and one of the goals in that former contract was the creation of

079a new strategic plan. Um the goals now align very closely with the current strategic plan that the district has. Um and so we have both on the board agenda tonight a recap of the goals under the strategic plan and also then the metrics by which uh we will be measuring the uh the progress towards those goals under the strategic plan. So Dr. Johnson if you want to say a few words on how that aligns. >> Yes, thank you President Owens. Uh so the first document that's attached it actually says I believe S. Johnson June 2025 goals. Those are the goals that are in direct alignment with the referenced [music] uh new strategic plan. So we have four uh general goal or general topics I should say. The first one being building early academic and social

080emotional foundations. Those measures of student progress are taken directly there from the strategic plan. Our second goal is around safety, sense of belonging and inclusion. Again measurements are identified there within the strategic plan. Goal three, academic growth and mastery. Um focusing on literacy, numeracy. Um certainly building conditions for learning across all of these areas as well as attendance. We need students to be in school uh if they're going to be learning and making growth. And then finally, ready to embrace a diverse and changing world. Uh aligning closely with some of the work as as uh timely as it was this evening around our post-secondary efforts and what that measurement looks like. Some of these measurements um or I should say manners in which the data will be measured and collected and then presented back to

081the board of education are still very much works in progress. Uh some of that was shared of course during the November 3rd update to the board of education around our school report card data as well as progress and we are uh committed to providing those regular presentations to the board always in the fall and again in the uh the conclusion of the year but as seen tonight um throughout the school year as well. The second document then uh is titled SY26 goals. It's a smaller chart and again it outlines uh specifically the numerousy monitoring goals for SY26 as well as the data from SY25 also for literacy and then again our conditions work for our students um across the system the goals that are established there uh when we look at meeting or exceed numbers

082for example in literacy and numeracy both on the AR and also the ACT for example are the benchmarks marks that have been established by the Illinois State Board of Education. Uh so those are those are the goals that we are striving for uh for our students. We know that we have uh growth across all of those areas to meet to be able to hit those benchmarks. Uh but that's the work that we are committed to doing and the work ahead of us to make sure that our students and are are learning and growing. Um and it looks a little bit different across grade levels and also across student groups. Of course, that information was uh as as it would be tonight, shared as well during our equity um update as well. We also then include

083some additional data around our conditions work uh number of our students of course around those post-secondary uh efforts as well um and and data uh around our colleagues across the system uh when it comes to our uh Gallup data and our five essentials work as well. So, uh, those are the the documents that we, uh, that I have, uh, to share with the board of education and, um, that we'll be continuing to review and provide updates to the board on. And certainly, I'm available to answer any additional questions or receive feedback at this time. >> And before I ask for any questions, I just want to thank Dr. Johnson for put putting these documents together um for you know the work that is going to to carry forward now through the life of this new

084contract. Um for the board you know our next steps um we have an evaluation of the superintendent every January. Um so these are now the frameworks that we will be using um to to monitor and to assess the the work towards these goals. Um Dr. Johnson and I had did have some conversation about, you know, framing these as, you know, school year 26 goals, knowing that as we move forward through the life of this contract and we have the alignment with the goals within the strategic within the strategic plan, um, you know, the information that we have here um will help guide us then to what that work looks like as we move uh through the the subsequent years of the contract. Um so with that, I will ask if board members have any questions

085or any comments um before we vote this into the record. No comments. Okay. Uh so I will take a motion to accept Oh, didn't we already Oh, no. Sorry. No, we did not. I I didn't read a motion into the for this one yet. Um, so I will take a motion to um accept the contract goals for Superintendent Dr. Johnson. >> So move second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> President Owen, >> yes. >> Motion carried. >> Thank you. Okay, the next item >> we have a proposal operations builder risk insurance. Dr. Anne Williams, deputy superintendent of operations and Brian Lindholm, chief of staff, will present the attached proposal summary and

086will respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the proposal from Chub Insurance Company in the amount of $92,943 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure was charged to the capital projects fund. The cost is included in the budget for the 2025 2026 through 2027 2028 fiscal years. May I have a motion to approve the proposal from CHUB Insurance Company in the amount of $92,943 and provide authorization for district administration to execute the related documents. >> So moved. Second. >> Board members have any questions? Thank you. >> Oh, um, sorry. We need to We need to vote. [laughter] >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Kurt, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >>

087yes. >> President Owens, >> yes. >> Motion carried. >> Okay. Next item. Next, we have a proposal operations owner controlled insurance program. Our team uh remains to present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the proposal from Alliant Insurance Services in the amount of $783,64 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure was charged to the capital projects fund. The cost is included in the budget for the 2025 2026 through 2027 2028 fiscal years. May I have a motion to approve the proposal from Alliant Insurance Services in the amount of $783,64 and provide authorization for district administration to execute the related documents. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any questions for the presenters? >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr.

088>> Yes. Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> President Owens, >> yes. >> Motion carried. >> Next item. >> Next, we have a proposal. Operations Unite U46 Century Oaks Elementary School winter break 2025 asbestous abatement. Again, our team uh continues to be available to present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the proposal from Concell Contracting Group Incorporated in the amount of $47,212 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure was charged to the capital projects fund cost is included in the budget for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. May I have a motion to approve the proposal from Kinsale Con Contracting Group Incorporated in the amount of 47,212

089and provide authorization for district administration to execute the related documents. >> So moved. Second. >> Any questions? Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> President Owens, >> yes. >> Motion carried. Now I'll say thank you. >> Okay, that brings us to other business. Dr. Johnson. >> Thank you, President Owens. Our first item, the October financial report. Robin Cornellison, executive director of financial services, will review the attached financial reports and respond to questions from the board of education. >> Good evening. Tonight, I will be presenting key highlights from October 2025 monthly financials. Please note that these statements are unudited, meaning that they reflect our internal accounting records as of October 30th prior to audit

090adjustments in relations to both revenue and expenditures. This is standard for this time of year as the annual external audit process is now concluding. Please note that the final audit adjustments will be processed and reported next month with the November financial reports. The October highlights include that the October ending uh ended with a deficit of 34.4 million with a year-to-ate actual reflecting a $50.9 million deficit. This deficit is uh primarily attributable to the decrease in local revenue due to the Cook County property tax delays and the increase in capital outlay for the U46 projects. At this time last year, we had received $73.8 8 million from Cook County, which is if we received that same amount this year, that would have provided us and we would be in a surplus balance. Um the unodudited fund

091balance now stands at 825,524,174 million. With 317 days cash on hand, the district can operate for just over 10 months without additional revenue, exceeding exceeding common benchmarks for financial stability. The combined cash and investments total $849.3 million, further reinforcing liquidity. As of the last business day of October, this the state of Illinois owes the district just over $1.5 million. October revenues totaled approximately 49.8 million, bringing our year-to-ate revenues, excluding financial resources, to 228.7 million. This represents 23% of our annual non- financing revenue budget. The year-over-year comparison reflects a difference of $70.9 million in local revenue, which includes the property tax revenue from Cook County, and 11.2 2 million in federal revenue from the ESRE fund that we had in FY25. As of last Thursday, Cook County has not issued a schedule or start date yet

092for dispersements. They are still working to process them accordingly in their new system and looking to release them as soon as they can with the hope that that is happening yet this week. So, we are optimistic still. Our October expenditures totaled approximately 84.2 2 million, bringing our year-to- date spending to 279.4 million or 29% of our annual expenditure budget. When compared to the prior uh October year-to- date, our variance of 75.3 million is largely contributed to theite U46 capital expenditures. This fiscal year expenditures are slightly above the 3% projected budget. However, some key highlights uh is the capital outlay uh that we uh relating to building construction and facility improvements for the United 46 as well as our district-wide capital projects. Since these activities primarily take place during the summer months, actual expenditures tend to

093run a little higher. Our salaries and benefits represent our largest expenditure category totaling 151.3 million or 26.8 of uh 26.8% of our budgeted amount. and our capital outlay forite 46 through October total 45.6 million. Our liquidity as of October 31st, our cash and money market balance is 361 million. Our investments are 488.2 million with total liquid assets at 80 849.3 million. New this month is our student activities. And as of October 31, 2025, our district has $3.9 million in student activity funds throughout all schools with year-to- date receipts exceeding dispersements by $276,56. Various receipts continue to be based around fundraisers, homecoming uh ticket sales, and athletics, while expenditures are related primarily to field trips. In closing, while the district is currently reporting a year to year year-to-ate deficit is largely the result of the timing

094delay uh due to Cook County and our planned capital investments associated withite 46. Our strong fund balance, substantial liquidity, and extended cash on hand position continue to reflect a sound and stable financial foundation. Thank you for your time and I welcome any questions you might have. Thank you. Board members have any questions for Miss Cornell? >> I have one quick question. The amount that the state owes us, is that all categoricals >> uh for 1.5? Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Because that's a a pretty small amount. So, right at that point, it's going to be categorical at that point. >> Okay. Are they are they running behind as a whole or are they >> No, Typically, they're really running on time. So, um at the end of um October um we run our expenditure reports

095towards the end of the month. So depending on um they usually pay us pretty quick by the end of the month, but if there are anything that that goes uh to the beginning of the next month, they have been pretty on time. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Okay. The next item, >> next we have the 2026 proposed summer project summary. Sheila DS, assistant superintendent of operations, and Jolene Linnamman, capital projects coordinator, will review the attached 2026 proposed summer project summary and respond to questions from the board of education. Oh, did you I'm sorry. Were you going to present anything as far as this goes or [laughter] >> All right. So, you'll see in front of you that we have listed all of our planned summer 2026 summer projects. Um the Larkin Larkin Stadium

096is a separate project. It will be funded from fund 60. Then we have new maintenance projects which are an array of different projects throughout the district that include HVAC, parking lot enhancements, insulation projects, and intercom system, entryway repair, and other miscellaneous infrastructure um projects. We also have some carryover projects that were began last summer in summer 2025 that will be completed this year. They were two-phaseed projects. Our total for this year's projects is approximately $45 million. The way that that works is right now we are working off of project estimates. As we open bids, we'll bring back each individual project for board approval and then we will firm up that initial estimate. And then we also have a healthife safety allocation of 11 million which we are proposing to apply to Fox Meadow and Illinois

097Parks um HVAC projects. With that stated, are there any questions? >> Thank you. And I before I ask the board members uh for any questions, I just I want to thank you for the format that this is in. Um it provides uh I think some additional guidance and and help for us in understanding how these, you know, where these projects stand at the moment, how they're being funded. um you know kind of the the the scope and the sphere of where they reside within the work that is ongoing in the district because there's there's a lot of work right and so this um this really helps provide a clearer picture as to the work that we've got upcoming. Do board members have any questions too? >> Just a a general question. A lot of the

098car a number of the carryover projects are generator replacements. Now I assume we didn't pull a generator and then leave it out for a year. Do we just do sort of get infrastructure ready for the putting it in? Is that how it's carried over? >> Yeah. So, typically with generators, the lead time on generators are so long that the first summer we'll do all the electric work. So, we go into the school, pull all the wires, change all the EM lighting, which is emergency lighting, um any emergency outlets, things like that. And then the next year is just the hookup and placing the generator on. >> Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. Any additional questions? Thank you. >> Okay, the next item on the agenda, next item on the agenda is work session. Dr. Johnson.

099>> Thank you, President Owens. Our first item, donation acceptance between Assurance Technologies Incorporated and the Board of Education of School District U46. Robin Cornellison, executive director of financial services, will present the donation acceptance between Assurance Technologies Incorporated and the board of education of school district U46. Administration recommends approval of the donation. >> Okay. Before I ask if there's any questions, did you have any comments about the the resolution? >> I do not. >> Okay. Board members have any questions? >> Thank you. Our next item, intergovernmental agreements video integration agreement with the villages of Bartlett, Carol Stream, Hanover Park, Hoffman Estates, South Elgen, and Streamwood. Rich Bosch, director of school safety, and Cassandra Rekenbach, assistant director of planning and systems, will present to the board of education the intergovernmental agreements video integration agreements with the villages

100of Bartlett, Carol Stream, Hanover Park, Hoffman Estate, South Elgen, and Streamwood. This agreement is presented to the board of education after it has been approved by the municipalities. The attached memorandum provides additional details regarding the video integration agreements. >> Hey, do board members have any questions regarding these agreements? Sue, >> is Wayne included? Because I see we have an Okay, it's just not included in the top list. Okay. Any other questions? Thank you. >> That brings us to work session resolutions. Dr. Johnson. >> Thank you, President Owens. Our first item, resolution providing for the issue of not to exceed $57 million general obligation school bonds series 2026A for the purpose of paying certain costs of those capital projects approved by referendum at the April 4th, 2023 consolidated election providing for the levy of a direct

101annual tax sufficient to pay the princ principle and interest on said bonds and authorizing the proposed sale of said bonds to the purchaser thereof. Dr. Anne Williams and Dr. Kyle Vonnezzy, deputy superintendent of operations and Anelie Vidge, partner at Chapman and Cutler will respond to the questions from the board of education. Administration recommends the board of education adopt the resolution providing for the issuance of general obligation school bond series 2026A not to exceed $57 million for the purpose of paying certain costs of capital projects approved by referendum. >> Okay. Hey, before I ask for board member comment or or questions, did you have anything to add to the resolution in front of us? >> If it would be helpful, I'm happy to spend a few minutes summarizing them. >> That would be great. >> Okay,

102great. Um, so the first resolution authorizes the issuance of not to exceed 57 million in bonds approved at the April 2023 election. This is parameters resolution which would authorize the board president and the deputy superintendent of operations to proceed with the sale of the bonds within the limitations set forth in the resolution. The resolution contains a final maturity date of January 1st, 2041 and a maximum interest rate of 5% and authorizes the levy of an annual property tax to pay the principle and interest on the bonds. The bonds are expected to be sold to the best bidder at a competitive sale. >> Thank you. Do board members have any questions? Okay, we can move on to the next item then. >> Okay, the second resolution authorizes the issuance of not to exceed 32 million in

103bonds to increase the working cash fund. After issuance and after proper abatement, the bond proceeds will be used for capital projects within the district. Again, this is a parameters resolution which authorizes certain delegates, board president, deputy superintendent of operations to proceed with the sale of the bonds within the limitations set forth. This resolution limits the final maturity to January 1st, 2036 and again limits the interest rate to 5%. It also authorizes the levy of an annual property tax to pay the principal and interest on the bonds. Like the prior resolution, these bonds will also be sold to the best bidder at a public competitive scale. >> Board members have any questions on that one. >> Before we move forward, I would like to remind the board of education that both of these bond issues will

104not increase the debt service u tax rate. um and we will be moving forward accordingly based on the schedule that exists today. So they will not increase the debt service tax >> and we have had um presentations on both of these uh at prior board meetings um and within the finance committee itself as well. So >> absolutely and thank you for bringing that up. The board of education has done an excellent job um at being financially responsible over the years that we have planned for these referendum projects. They participated in individual financial trainings as well as collective training. So, thank you for your commitment to fiscal solid >> and I will point then to those. The uh video for those board meetings are available on the district's YouTube channel. >> Thank you. Okay, the next

105item is work session bids and proposals. Dr. Johnson. Thank you, President Owens. Our first item is bid plant operations South Elgen High School modernization pool project number 282-25. Sheila DS, assistant superintendent of operations, and Jolene Linnamman, capital projects coordinator, will present the attached proposal summary and will respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends award to the lowest responsible bidder, Light Construction Incorporated, in the amount of $547,000 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the operations fund. The cost is included in the budget for the 2025 and 2026 2027 fiscal years. >> Do board members have any questions? >> Next item. Next item. Proposal plant operations. Handover countryside Elementary School Emergency Environmental Testing and Cleaning. Our team uh remains again to uh present the

106attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the proposal. sorry, recommends approval of the proposal from Falls Mechanical Insulation Incorporated in the amount of $55,128 and Weaver Consultants Group in the amount of $441,336.13 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure was charged to the operations fund. Do board members have any questions? That will move us to work session contracts over 35,000. Dr. Johnson, >> thank you. Our first item is a contract plan operations 2017 standard form of agreement between owner and architect Corp. Again, Sheila DS, assistant superintendent of operations, and Jolene Linaman, capital projects coordinator, will present the attached proposal and we'll respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the contract with IMEG Corp or IMEG Corp.

107IMEG. Okay, I I had it uh for the design of the summer 2026 capital projects and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged the operations fund. The cost is included in the budget for the 2025 2026 and 2026 2027 fiscal years. Do board members have any questions? Okay, next item. Contract plan operations 2017 standard form of agreement between owner and architect Archon Associates Incorporated. Again, our team is here to present the attached proposal and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the contract with Archon Associates Incorporated for the design of the summer 2026 capital projects and requests authorization for the district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the operations fund and capital projects fund cost is included in

108the budget for the 2025 2026 and 2026 2027 fiscal years. Do board members have any questions? Okay. Next is a contract for plan operations 2017 standard form of agreement between owner and architect mechanical service associates corporation. Again, our team is here to present the attached proposal and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the contract with mechanical service associates corporation for the design of summer 2026 capital projects and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the operations fund and health and life safety fund. Cost is included in the budget for the 2025 2026 and 2026 2027 fiscal years. >> Do board members have any questions? Thank you. >> Next is a contract renewal information services call manager flex. Joining Sheila DS is

109Noel Kuneo, technology operations manager to present the attached proposal and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the contract with Sentinel Technologies Incorporated in the amount of $122,92.50. Requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the education fund. The cost is included in the budget for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. >> Do board members have any questions? >> Thank you. >> Next is a contract renewal. Specialized student services five-star interpreting. Amanda Leatherbeby, director of specialized student services, and Amy Derkowski, assistant director of specialized student services, will present the attached proposal and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the contract renewal with five-star interpreting in the amount not to exceed $300,000 and request authorization for district administration to

110execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the education fund. The cost is included in the budget for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. >> Do board members have any questions? Thank you. And that brings us to work session change orders. Dr. Our item tonight, change order plan operations Coleman Elementary School roof replacement project number 686-25 returning Sheila DS, assistant superintendent of operations and Jolene Linnamman, capital project coordinator will present the attached change order and will respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends the board of education approve the change order from Crowther Roofing and Sheet Metal Incorporated in the amount of minus $46,700. >> Any questions on the change order? Thank you. >> That is the last item on our agenda. I will take a motion to adjourn. >> So move second.

111>> Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> President Owens, >> yes. >> We are adjourned at 8:55 p.m. >> Thank you everyone.